Just One More Hit

Karl Marx famously said "Religion is the opium of the masses". That may well be the case for many, however my stimulant of choice is tattooing.

It's only been three months since I finished my second sleeve and I was getting withdrawal symptoms from not having a tattoo appointment to look forward to. Like a drug addict it was all I could think about and nothing else would satisfy my craving for ink. There was no other solution, I needed a fix! 

I'd been thinking about getting a Bonji on my chest for a while as I wanted something bold and graphic to sit between my sleeves. The symbol I chose was from my year of birth from the Chinese calendar (year of the rooster) and is also related to the Deity Fudo Myo which I really like as an image. I've also been thinking about a back piece and I wanted to talk to Diego about it and go through some images with him so I thought I'd do both at once by getting the tattoo and doing the consultation together. This would surely satisfy my thirst for tattooing, at least for now!

I emailed Diego and luckily he had some free space, so a couple of days later I was back in Leeds, sitting in the chair with the familiar sting of the needle reminding me what I had been missing, the pain and the ecstasy of a new tattoo. 

I'm really pleased with the outcome and it's exactly how I imagined it would look so I couldn't be happier with it.


Already thinking of my next hit...

We spent some time going through some images looking through reference images of Kannon, the Deity that I eventually want for my back piece . Kannon is connected with Japanese esoteric Buddhism and is the goddess of compassion and mercy and should make a great image for a large scale tattoo. Statues and images of her always look very beautiful to me and I know Diego will make a great tattoo with this imagery. This next stage in my tattoo collection is a big one so it should keep me going for quite a while into the future, when I eventually get it started.